What if every life is connected to every other by a single thread?

Under an apple tree, in a small town on the edge of a great lake, something is beginning.

In a house on a hill above an orchard, a broken man stares out his window but doesn’t see the swaying branches or the summer sun. He sees only his wife’s face and feels again the dreadful sense of falling.

Walking between the trees, a recently freed prisoner is learning how to live in the world again when he makes a discovery that will change many lives forever.

Memories haunt Swanton Robey. The horrific accident that killed his young wife has taken all but his life, leaving him a prisoner of his injuries and his heart’s great loss. Floating through his days with dreams of the past and visions of what might have been, Swan watches the world through his high window but never ventures into it, gazing out over the apple orchard he owns but has abandoned, and beyond it, to the great and mysterious lake.

Joseph Geewa has been a prisoner too, for a crime triggered by grief, ordained by fate. Now free after twenty years, he is trying to build a life among the living—an existence of simple beauty, of choices created through the kindness of others. Grace, his niece, is guiding him back to the world, even as she is drawn to Swan’s tragic isolation. Then, an astonishing discovery in Swan’s orchard suddenly forces the two men together and propels them on a journey of rescue and revelation that in turn might set them both free.

In The Widower, lives entwine in the most unexpected ways, bound together by accidents and twists of fate that can forever hold us one to another. Narrated in episodes that seamlessly join the past and present, this is a story about how individual histories influence present lives, about the value of compassion and the power of forgiveness. Weaving threads of love and mystery through every page, Liesel Litzenburger’s spare and lyrical novel follows the lives of unforgettable characters in a profound story of loss and redemption.

"The wounded of heart and mind take the slow lane to redemption in this quiet debut novel, set in a small town in northern Michigan. Feisty Grace Blackwater tends to two damaged men: her uncle, Joseph Geewa, recently freed from a 20-year stint in prison (for a crime of passion), and Swan Robey, home again after being badly injured in a New Year's Eve car accident that killed his wife. Wracked with guilt, Swan recuperates in isolation while Joseph works in the Robey family orchard. The two men are thrown together when Joseph discovers an abandoned baby in the orchard — setting off an improbable road trip. Grace, meanwhile, must address her own guilt for having pined for Swan's love before the accident occurred. Other characters' perspectives are woven in: Ray Ford, the EMT who saved Swan's life; Grace's mother, Ramona, who has been hiding the gun Joseph used 20 years before; and Dawn, the troubled young mother passing through town. Written in the present tense and hopping from past to present, Litzenburger's narrative is pleasantly unmoored. Though the plot is thin and leans heavily on implausible encounters, Litzenburger's prose lends luster and mystery to an otherwise conventional story." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

“Tense and terrific... The Widower is a mystery and a heartbreak and a road trip... and Litzenburger is an original, delivering an intricate story layer by layer, character by character, accident by misunderstanding, right to the devastatingly satisfying ending.”

Bill Roorbach, author of Temple Stream: A Rural Odyssey

Litzenburger pens an evocative, mysterious story about accidents and coincidences, about neighbors and family, and the unexpected ways in which fate intertwines the lives of strangers and friends alike.

Liesel Litzenburger’s stories and essays have appeared in magazines, journals, and anthologies. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has written for the Detroit Free Press and the Chicago Tribune. She has taught writing at several colleges and universities, including the University of Michigan, New College, and the Interlochen Arts Academy, and is the recipient of awards and residences from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, Yaddo, and the MacDowell Colony. She lives in Michigan.